European Summit Without Russia... Zelensky: "Ready to Join NATO"

Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, emphasized his intention to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) at a gathering of leaders from over 40 European countries.

According to major foreign media including AFP, leaders from the 27 European Union (EU) member states and 20 non-EU European countries held the 2nd European Political Community (EPC) summit on the 1st (local time) in Balti, Moldova. The EPC officially launched last October with the goal of providing a political cooperation space for participating countries in areas such as energy, transportation, and infrastructure.

European leaders from across the continent gathered for the 2nd meeting of the European Political Community (EPC)

The meeting focused intensively on discussions to respond to the economic and security crises in the European region caused by the Ukraine situation.

President Zelensky, who attended the meeting, stated, "Ukraine is ready to join (NATO) at any time once the Western military alliance is prepared to accept us," and urged, "A clear invitation to Ukraine at the NATO summit in Vilnius this summer is necessary, along with security guarantees on the path to NATO membership. (In the fall,) a clear and positive decision on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union (EU) is needed."

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, also said, "The most urgent and important task is to help Ukraine defeat Russia," and emphasized the need to establish a framework that can provide security guarantees for Ukraine even after the war ends.

Maia Sandu, President of Moldova, which obtained EU candidate status alongside Ukraine in June last year, expressed hope that "talks for EU accession will proceed as soon as possible."

Additionally, President Zelensky revealed at a press conference after the summit that participating countries showed strong support regarding the issue of fighter jet assistance. Ukraine has received MiG-29 fighter jets from Poland and others, which are from the former Soviet era. Recently, the Group of Seven (G7) approved a plan for allied countries to jointly support F-16 pilot training for Ukrainian pilots, raising the possibility of F-16 support.

Major European leaders including Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany, Emmanuel Macron, President of France, and Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, all attended the meeting.

Russia was excluded from this EPC meeting. Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, emphasized regarding Russia’s absence, "The reason Russia is not here (at the EPC meeting) is not because we do not want to invite them, but because they have been excluded from this community by invading Ukraine."